Chapter 3

In Lumin's office, The Doctor and Lumin had just finished interviewing one of the detainees from the round-up. He stared sullenly at them as Lumin dismissed him with a curt, "All right you can go." She nodded to one of her security guards who stood inside the doorway. The security guard waited for the detainee to get out of his chair and then escorted him out of the office. This had been going on a long time. The Doctor paced around, tense and frustrated.

"If you want, I could become more persuasive," said Lumin.

The Doctor refused to even consider it. "No."

Lumin nodded, accepting, if not totally agreeing with his decision. The security guard entered with the waiter who is nervous but defiant. He sat down. Lumin consulted her wall screen computer. "You're Shatik Kaw, the waiter from the Lumar Café."

He nodded.

"You witnessed both the explosion and the kidnapping."

"I saw nothing."

The Doctor's impatience was growing.

"We are aware of your ties with the Spherion. For all we know you planted the bomb yourself. Where have they taken her?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I've had enough of this." Before Lumin could respond, the Doctor placed himself between her and the prisoner.

"I want you to take a message back to your people. Tell them the Time Lords are willing to negotiate for the release of Ace McShane."

"Doctor…!"

The Doctor cut her off. "She's my friend. That makes her my responsibility."

Lumin's silence was a tacit agreement.

The Doctor addressed Shatik, "Your side has demands, we're willing to listen to them. We want her back. It's as simple as that."

Shatik studied the Doctor, trying to perceive whether there was any truth behind his words. After a beat, the Doctor moved away.

"I don't think it's necessary to detain this gentleman any longer," he continued to Lumin.

Shatik looked over at Lumin and figured there was no way she would let him go so easily. Lumin glanced at the Doctor who was also waiting for her response. Finally she broke the silence. "Get out," she ordered Shatik.

Shatik tried to hide his amazement. He hurried out of the room before she could change her mind.

"I should have him followed, but we'll try it your way."

"Is that what you want?"

She sat down at her desk. Suddenly she seemed very weary. "What I want is to go home. Back to my own country. To leave behind the roundups, the interrogations, the bodies lying in the street. To be able to walk without bodyguards, and not have to jump at every unexpected noise. That's what I want Doctor." She leaned back in her chair, angry.

Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor was standing at the console with Nita.

"The dimensional jump creates a subspace pressure modulation, Doctor. By setting up a magnetosphere faint echogram that can monitor each of their movements, we may be able to collect enough data to trace their power source."

"Can you estimate the number of jumps it will take?"

"Dimensional shifting is such an unstable procedure that I can't say."

The Doctor acknowledged her words. As he started to move away, Nita continued. "Doctor, I'm finding it difficult to understand many aspects of Spherion conduct. Much of their behavioral norm is unnecessary and unacceptable."

"Yes, I agree, Nita."

"But, if that is so, Doctor, why are their methods often successful? I've been reviewing the history of armed rebellion and it appears that terrorism is an effective way to promote political change."

"I have never subscribed to the theory that political power flows from the barrel of a gun, Nita."

"In most instances, you would be right. But there are many examples where it was successful – the independence of the Mexican State from Spain, the Irish Unification, the Kenzie Rebellion…"

"Yes, I'm aware of them…"

"Then, would it be accurate to say that terrorism is acceptable when the options for peaceful settlement have been exhausted?"

"Nita, we cannot condone violence."

"Even in response to violence?"

The Doctor looked at her. "These are questions that mankind has been struggling with since creation. I am afraid your confusion, Nita…is only human."

In the cavern, Glinix was sketching again, studying Ace as she worked among the patients. There was a flash. Glinix turned to see the waiter coming toward him as the terrorist boy came over and took his shoulder harness from him.

"Everyone is being rounded up." He glanced at Ace who looked back curiously.

"Because of her?"

The waiter nodded. "The Time Lord wants to negotiate her release."

"While they arrange for the Calaxi police to fill up the detention cells."

The waiter nodded again. "The Time Lord is working with the director. He wants a meeting with you."

"I'm sure he does." He shook his head, looked at Ace and looked at the sketch in his hand. It was of Ace. Glinix acknowledged away the waiter and moved toward her. "Your Time Lord colleague has engineered mass arrests to pressure me into releasing you."

"I'm sure you've misunderstood."

"He is working with the police. He's seen it with his own eyes."

"All he wants is to get me back safely."

"I'm not going to release you."

They way her looked at her gave Ace the creeps.

"I need you here."

"To find a way to reverse the effects of the dimensional shift? I can do that right now. Stop using it." She suddenly felt vulnerable. "Glinix, I have a life, friends who care about me."

"They are on the ship?"

She nodded. Glinix looked uncomfortably down, and then back again with guilty eyes. "I am sorry they are on the ship."

She realized what he was thinking. "No…"

"They have joined forces with Calaxi against us…"

"We are not your enemy…"

"They are more valuable to me than an enemy. For seventy years we've been shouting, and no one's heard us. Destroy a Time Lord's TARDIS…someone will listen."

He started away. Ace rushed after him…

"Please…"

"They are the ones who interfered. They brought medical supplies. They organized mass arrests. They are killing your friends, not me."

"Please, don't do this, Glinix. I'll do anything you ask."

He studied her a moment, contemplating all the things he could ask of her.

"I had friends, too. They all died in detention." He moved away.

Inside a corridor of the TARDIS, the sound of the inter-dimensional transporter, and an armed Spherion terrorist appeared. The Cloister Bell started ringing.

The Doctor and Nita were in the console room.

"Intruder alert deck twelve," Nita announced, looking at the reading on the console. "I've got a subspace reflection. It's a dimensional shift."

"Seal off all decks…lock on transporters to intruder signals," the Doctor ordered.

"Intruder signals unstable, Doctor, I can't lock on."

"They are moving inter-dimensionally. Neither the transporters nor forcefields will be able to contain them, Nita."

A terrorist slapped a charge on the wall of the Cloister Room. It clung like a limpet and the band on the edge lit up. It was pulsing and emitting a beep in a climbing cadenza. The gunmen vanished.

Nita charged into the Cloister Room. "Explosive charge on the cloister room wall," she reported through her iWatch."

"I'll try to transport it out," replied the Doctor. "Ugh…it's scrambling the sensors, Nita, I can't pinpoint it. We might have to evacuate. Nita, can you remove the charge from the cloister wall?"

"Wait a sec, I'm trying." She grabbed the charge on the cloister wall and yanked. It didn't budge. "They've got it locked on somehow, hold on." Frenziedly she snatched a tool from a nearby cupboard and surgically removed the charge with the laser. It dropped into her hand. She moved quickly to get it out of the cloister room. "Got it. Stand by to lock on my iWatch and transport it out."

"Your iWatch?" The Doctor tried to be calm. Nita knew what she was doing.

Nita yanked off her iWatch. She slapped it onto the device as she pushed it out of the Cloister Room, and ducked back for cover. The sound of the bomb had become an almost frenzied scream. "Doctor, now!"

The bomb materialized in space and exploded.

In the TARDIS, the tension was palpable. The Doctor was standing at the console, gripping it tightly.

"Nita?"

Nita leaned against the wall and touched a companel. "Transport complete."

The Doctor sighed in relief and looked at the readings on the console. "We have more subspace reflections. I'll try to calibrate their destination, but the readings are…"

Another terrorist appeared right in the console room. They sprayed a few shots around the console room. One hit the console which exploded in his face. He tried to see, attempting to keep the TARDIS operational. Other parts of the console exploded.

Glinix turned to see the Doctor moving at him. The Doctor got in a good hard punch before Glinix grabbed him in a bearhug. A major struggle ensued as Nita charged into the room.

Glinix keyed the dimensional device. Glinix and the Doctor vanished as Nita's hands closed on nothing.